Buying a 'traditional' new build! (Persimmon?)

[Andehh]

I need fortification.... Hit the 50% completed mark last week -on paper, reality feels like 30%. Time, money, stress... gin.... All fluidic.

 

Drove past a Persimmon estate, and thought....."hmmm, now that's tempting.....!" 

 

 

Tell me it's worth it!!!!

Edited March 18, 2022 by Andehh

[Thorfun]

the Persimmon house won't be how you want it though. yeah, it might be easy and it might 'do', but that's not what self-building is about!

 

I understand the stress, time, money issues and I'm going through it all but the other day our charred larch turned up and it's beautiful and something you'll never find on a mass built home! and I knew it would all be worth it. 🙂 

[PeterW]

@Andehh I can give you the full persimmon experience … I’ll promise you the earth, charge you a fortune, make you wait 6 months longer than I said to start with and then when I hand over the draughty shed you thought was an executive residence you’ll feel the way a lot of people feel when they do what you’re thinking …. 
 

Don’t do it !!

[JohnMo]

Have you bought or are you thinking of buying?

[ProDave]

If I had bought a Persimon box, I would be living on an over crowded housing estate, in the same type of box as many other people, complaining about my higher than expected heating bills and complaining about many aspects of a design meant for the average family that are not to my liking and not tailored to the individual plot.

 

Instead I am sat inside my warm, low energy house, looking out at the setting sun, over fields towards the mountains in the distance still with some snow left on them.  I like the fact I can only see a few houses from my windows and the house layout and features are exactly what we wanted and designed to work with the plot and it's orientation with respect to sun and views.  I love the individual details like the west facing kitchen window specifically to see those snow covered mountains. I like that all the fixtures and fittings like kitchen, worktops, doors, floor coverings, doors, skirting boards and even smaller things like door handles, socket types and exact position, were all individually chosen by us to our liking.

 

I like the fact that the house was built with all the AV and network cabling we needed all built in and hidden in the walls, including hidden cabling for surround sound speakers in both main rooms.

 

I like the fact we have under floor heating from an air source heat pump.

 

You don;t get many, if any of those tailor made details by buying a developer standard design house.

[saveasteading]

11 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Instead I am sat inside my

you don't mention build quality, actual airtightness instead of 'assessed' and the confidence that there are no nasty surprises that may emerge in a few years

[Nickfromwales]

2 hours ago, saveasteading said:

and the confidence that there are no nasty surprises that may emerge in a few years

With Persimmon, you do NOT have to wait years to discover how big a sack-o-shit the house you've just bought actually is.  

My mate paid £300k for a 5 bed PPoS ( persimmon pile of shit ) and asked me to tile the entire ground flor for him, he was a chippy.

I walked around and got to the back garden which was a swamp with some grotty soil and bricks etc mixed in. I asked why it looked like a derelict allotment and he said "turf is an optional extra.....". I chuckled and got my gear out.

I went to mix up and no outside tap. I asked where it was so I could get some water....."that's an optional extra too, can you fit one for me and use that please?......."

I then ran my laser throughout. The liquid screed had not been 'scrubbed' to remove the laitence, the floor in the kitchen was 13mm off from centre one way ( from the big nasty expansion joint disc'd into the floor ) and 9mm the other way ( this was the kitchen and about 5.5m wide!!!!! ).

In comes the screed layers to put it right with self levelling compound, lots of it too......( mates mate did it, and NOT paid for by Persimmon btw!!! ).

I get on and get done, and about halfway through a sales rep walks past and asks why I'm using the outside tap of the house next door ( that has not yet sold ). I said I just needed water as the house I was working on did not have one. She shot off, got her keys, let herself into the house next door and shut off the stopcock. I shit you not. My mate told me that the house had not sold, so each week something on the 'optional extras' list got added by Persimmon to try to make it sell. It had turf ( and an outside tap lol ). FFS.

 

When he was bullied into giving the deposit with no notice, he was on holiday. He tried to pay over the phone / BACS etc but they told him he had to sign for the property or risk losing it. He flew home, minus his family, and asked to go into the house. The sales lady was hesitant and he had to insist. She let him in and to his horror the kitchen was in bits and loads of it missing AFTER he had paid for extra units, particular appliances etc to get their own 'tailored kitchen' installed ( which had been done and was finished ). Turns out the house directly opposite had sold, the people wouldn't close the deal if they couldn't move in by a certain date, so Persimmon raped my mates house as a donor so thy could complete the other house.

 

Bathrooms had tiles just where water would splash, and paint everywhere else. The standard of the bathrooms was horrific. Tiles cut past where the tiler should have stopped the cut, grouted to hide it. Trims cut horridly badly, the list just went on, and on, and on, and on etc etc etc.

 

Total and utter bell-ends, paying bad trades next to nothing to turn out sub-standard, over-priced heaps of crap. Stay well clear.

 

[ProDave]

3 hours ago, saveasteading said:

you don't mention build quality, actual airtightness instead of 'assessed' and the confidence that there are no nasty surprises that may emerge in a few years

I was trying to be brief.  I forgot to mention decent triple glazed windows etc as well.

[Andehh]

Thanks all! Its true... The lure was laughed off quickly as I came to my sense & the lure of gin & tonic got the better of me! 

 

Being houses is still bloody hard work! Only 4(ish) months to go.... 

[Mr Punter]

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.persimmonhomes.com

https://www.reviews.io/company-reviews/store/persimmonhomes

https://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews141166.html

[DevonKim]

Thanks for this folks, I have bookmarked this thread so that I can keep coming back to it to remind myself why I am doing a self-build, particularly when the going gets tough 😀.  

Edited May 8, 2022 by DevonKim